“Kingsman” Unseats “It” While “Ninjago” Stumbles

It took two entire secret agencies to take down Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Kingsman: The Golden Circle introduced their American counterparts the Statesmen, and were rewarded with an estimated $39 million. That's just a hair above what 2015's The Secret Service debuted with. Still, that was enough to unseat It, which still managed an impressive $30 million.

That Stephen King adaptation overtook both Jaws and The Exorcist this weekend, which means it only has The Sixth Sense to dethrone. That 1999 phenomenon earned $293 million, stayed at No. 1 for five straight weeks and received six Oscar nominations. It won't have nearly those legs, but should surpass the $293 million by October 1. (And it might secure one – and only one – Oscar nomination, but we won't know that until January.) Even more impressive is how it's done worldwide. American horror films typically aren't as big overseas, but It has earned almost as much internationally, and should end with well over half a billion dollars.

But America's LEGO infatuation might be on the slowdown. Despite big-selling toys and a long-running TV series, general audiences just weren't interested in Ninjago. The film earned less than half of what The LEGO Batman Movie debuted with earlier this year, and less than a third of what The LEGO Movie premiered with back in 2014. It might even end up with less than *gasp* The Emoji Movie. American Assassin and Home Again rounded out the top five.

Outside the top 5:

• This Weekend's Indie Champ: There was a lot of competition, but Victoria and Abdul reigned supreme. The period drama about Queen Victoria and her Indian servant Abdul Karim. Serving as a sequel to 1997's Mrs. Brown, the film averaged $38,000 on each of its four screens.
• Audiences didn't accept Friend Request. The social media horror flick earned just $2.4 million.
• Three smaller movies had big impressions on a limited number of screens: Boston Marathon bombing drama Stronger entered at No. 9 on 574 screens, mid-life crisis dramedy Brad's Status leapt 21 spots as it expanded to 453 screens and real-life sports movie Battle of the Sexes debuted at No. 16 on just 21 screens.

Next week:

Tom Cruise's CIA pilot thriller American Made takes on a wholly unnecessary remake of Flatliners. Cruise is obviously the bigger draw, but he's only had one non-Mission: Impossible movie in the past decade open at No. 1 (2013's Oblivion). So while it will do better than Flatliners, its real competition is Til Death Do Us Part. The film is basically a remake of Sleeping with the Enemy, but with an African-American cast. Both The Perfect Guy (2015) and No Good Deed (2013) took similarly well-tread premises, but still debuted at No. 1 in September, albeit with less competition. Despite having a smaller distributor, I think it can pull off the surprise win with $22 million, while American Made nabs only $16 million.